yeah, I'm very curious to see how things look. IIRC, last year I had a total cholesterol a bit over 100, LDL was good, and HDL was a bit low (always has been). The year prior I was mostly low carb and low fat while doing P90X and I had a total cholesterol under 100, which is not good but likely still better than being really high.

Laurie, I base my trust in paleo and a lot of my understanding of how it works for diabetics on the information and lifestyle of Dr. Richard Bernstein, who is a Type 1 diabetic and has been on the paleo diet for more than 40 years. He's in great health and knows the intricacies of the physiological problems of diabetes far better than most. This lecture he gives is just one of many sources he has put out there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VaNJO7KMgg

Also Dr. Andrew Weil, the prominent and popular advocator of vegetarian diets has recently embraced the idea that the research about fat has been wrong... a glaring and complete about face. For good reasons, I think. I agree with what he says in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoQGRJqGQTs

(For what it's worth, I don't do most of my research or base my understanding solely on such videos. Mostly I read a lot of books and science reports. But I thought the videos would be the most accessible in a discussion such as this. Maybe they will influence those who watch them to go out and do more research on their own.)

Those are excellent numbers. Do you have past numbers to compare to? That's always the most interesting story in my opinion. Also, you should ask for you complete panel results. You can tell a ton from all those little tests with the right interpretation and "normal" can have a huge range. Vitamin D would be particularly interesting - especially this time of year. BTW - your LDL is just fine. Did they do a particle size test? 101 on a paleo diet is pretty amazing and almost certainly the happy kind of LDL.

Some of last years numbers (off memory) are a few posts up but my total cholesterol is now higher, ldl is higher, hdl is higher, and I believe triglycerides are around the same. I was on more of a standard diet last year.

Vitamin D wasn't in the test panel but I did get all of the results. The additional tests done were a Complete Blood Count with Differential/Platelet and a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. You can google them if you want to see what they include and are interested in specific results. I honestly don't know what most of it means other than I'm mostly within the reference intervals. Outliers were my white blood cell count (3.9 with a ref int of 4-10.5) and LDL (101 with a ref int of 0-99).

Congratulations Chris. I have always been unsure what the term "paleo" means but all you guys got me curious and I'm starting to get an idea. I've been listening to the "Healthy Mind, Fit Body" podcast which has a very paleo take on health. I have been a not-so-strict vegetarian (small portion of chicken or fish few times a week) but have focused recently on eating raw foods, reducing bread, and avoiding processed foods. A typical lunch is an apple and a couple handfuls of walnuts or vege pizza. Cooking eggs for breakfast is not really practical for me, so I've been unsure what to do about breakfast. Usually a banana and an orange and some Probar. Good new doc is "Hungry for Change"http://www.hungryforchange.tv/

"Cooking eggs for breakfast is not really practical for me, so I've been unsure what to do about breakfast. "

If you mean cooking each morning, that's easily solvable. There's a delightful cookbook called "Paleo Comfort Foods" which includes a recipe for crustless quiche. What's great about the recipe is that it's very easy to change it up - use different vegetables and different meats - so that it doesn't get boring.

Sunday afternoons/evenings are my set aside cooking time. I cook a quiche, which gives me enough for breakfast for the week (including weekend), and make some other meal for lunches (bison chili, cabbage and sausage stew, shrimp scramble, salmon stew, etc.). So one afternoon of cooking gives me my meals for the week. If it's a crappy day out I'll spend a bit more time cooking and cook two different lunch meals, freezing half of each for the following week.

@Doug - I eat really well. I'm lucky to have great food sources in the Northwest and a spouse that is a fantastic cook, but dang, Doug - your meals sound amazing! Care to share a couple recipes? In particular, the bison chili and cabbage and sausage stew?

I love to see people get their life back. I own a clinic that does this very thing. It's truly amazing what the body can do when given the right tools. The Paleo diets a pretty good one as are several others. Humans can do quite well on a wide range of foods. Anyone care to guess what is the only scientifically proven diet that increases life expectancy in all mammals(that they have tested)? Just a tip, anyone getting their blood lipids tested needs to get their inflammatory markers tested as well(homocystiene,c-reactive protein). Cardiovascular disease is all inflammation. Much more important than testing cholesterol. You can have a cholesterol level of 400 but if you don't have inflammation it doesn't matter. Conversely if you have inflammation your cholesterol can be 125 and you can keel over from a heart attack. That's why 50% of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol. There are no drugs that lower these inflammatory markers so your doc is very unlikely to test them. Just remember to eat those healthy fats. One of the most important things you can do and never go on a low fat diet. Very bad for you. Best wishes and great job. DrH

Yep....that is one reason our diet is full of good fats. We eat a lot of nuts and seeds, usually raw. No low fat diet!! We follow a nearly unprocessed food regime, minimal meat/animal products, high in fiber, veggies and fruits.

An odd side effect of our diet we follow? My husband's hair has been growing in again in the past year or so. It is WEIRD - he was going bald like many men his age. It has reversed! I attribute it to the higher fat IMO and less sugar/preservatives. And not only that our cholesterol levels dropped in half.

It's most likely because his hormones have returned to normal. The excessive conversion of testosterone to DHT is usually what does it. This is bad for men because it also gets turned into estrogen which is bad for men. Increase the risk of prostate cancer. Sounds like you guys are on the right track. All the men in my family are totally bald by 28. I'm 41 and still have a good amount left on top.

Yeah prostate cancer runs in my family too. It's from excessive conversion of testosterone into estrogen. Staying away from phytoestrogens(environmental or chemical memics of estrogen) in the diet is important. Chlorine and flouride can both mimic estrogen.